Together with 30 Alumni and friends of the HEC Community, I met with Chinese executives as well as European executives settled in China during the 2010 award ceremony.

Together with 30 Alumni and friends of the HEC Community, we celebrated the 2010 award and enjoyed the outstanding wonder of the World Expo.

Approaching and embracing this new breed of Management talents was also my motive.

Through lots of contacts, within a few days, I could visualize how fierce is this huge battleground in the Chinese ’war for talent’!

Recruiting and retaining the right Executives anywhere is a challenge, but the issues around staffing in China are such that even the most experienced HR professional might think twice before taking the plunge.

There so many issues you want to work together. Language,culture, communication are the first minimum required, then comes ‘guanxi’ and its decisive importance, and so on.

I was impressed at meeting some European Executives ,succesful at managing people who are sensitive to slights that one can barely detect.

I greatly enjoyed meeting with high level Chinese Executives , gifted with strong international experience and vision.

One exceptional personnality is Mr.Xu Bo, Deputy General Commissioner to the World Expo. He gave us an outstanding speech about this event importance to China promotion, reflecting a new image of strength and life quality for the long run.

You will see some pictures of HEC recognition to the great welcome we enjoyed in Shanghai, by offering him the ‘famous Shanghai Dupont pen’!